More upcoming stuff

[skiehawk11]

How about cutting agencies that aren't authorized by the Constitution?

Every government agency is technically authorized by the Constitution. When Congress passes legislation, the Constitution gives it the authority to enforce the legislation. The enforcement is done by the executive branch. Most if not all agencies are created by a piece or pieces of legislation which means that as long as the legislation remains, the agency is needed to ensure that the legislation is enforced.

[mjedlin66]

If someone needs their retirement bennies cut how about we start with what a politician gets after only one term in Washington? Pretty sweet deal they have compared to the rank and file federal workers.

They are required by the ACA to buy their insurance on the ACA exchange. All other government workers are FEHB. They do not have benefits for life like so many people claim.

[honkytonk]

I would close a few agencies to save money. I just can't remember which ones they are at the moment.

[cswift01]

If someone needs their retirement bennies cut how about we start with what a politician gets after only one term in Washington? Pretty sweet deal they have compared to the rank and file federal workers.

They are required by the ACA to buy their insurance on the ACA exchange. All other government workers are FEHB. They do not have benefits for life like so many people claim.

I hope this helps http://www.investopedia.com/articles/ma ... verage.asp.

I would close a few agencies to save money. I just can't remember which ones they are at the moment.

Hahah! I would add "I would close a few agencies, I just can't remember which ones...except for the one that I'm leading because that one suddenly has value."

It’s the same ol crap!!! The first thing the politicians want to target is civilian pay and retirement benies! There are plenty of other ways to trim the fat...how about targeting similar programs offered by different agencies, or maybe limiting the length and amounts of unemployment and welfare benefits....just to name a couple.
Or maybe cut some of their pay and benies...that’d be the day huh?
Just saying!

There is only one issue that I have with what you said. I wouldn't say there is that much fat. Sure, there are redundancies and other issues (e.g. poor performing workers), but last I checked, every industry had that. We complain about incompetent people being hired for the government, but they are also hired for companies (this reminds me of the days when I was a management consultant).

The government has really not grown and proportionally is much smaller than it ever has been (probably due to technology and automation).

Oh and this chart is pretty neat:
https://media.nationalpriorities.org/up ... nacted.png

[ron.logan]

Oh and this chart is pretty neat:
https://media.nationalpriorities.org/up ... nacted.png[/quote]

That chart is a bit misleading. Social Security and Medicare should not be considered in the "Total Federal Spending" because SS and Medicare are not paid for by taxes. We pay into SS and Medicare separately in addition to paying taxes. SS and Medicare should be self sufficient and pay for what they were originally set up to do, if the Gov would stop using the funds to subsidize other 'entitlement' programs.

It would be interesting to see three charts, Total Federal SS Spending, Total Federal Medicare Spending, and Total Federal tax dollar Spending.

The programs that are funded 100% by tax dollars are the ones that should be under the knife. I work in DOD Acquisition and see the absurd overhead, additional charges, and profit the Gov pays contractors and corporations. Basically for every $1 dollar of goods or service we get from a contractor the Gov ends up paying $3. And it's all DCAA and GAO approved. Take that $1 cost ya $3 mentality into the Millions/Billions and one can easily see where cuts can be made.

My 2c, Tirade done..........

[Chulke]

It’s the same ol crap!!! The first thing the politicians want to target is civilian pay and retirement benies! There are plenty of other ways to trim the fat...how about targeting similar programs offered by different agencies, or maybe limiting the length and amounts of unemployment and welfare benefits....just to name a couple.

Or maybe cut some of their pay and benies...that’d be the day huh?



Just saying!

So your solution is instead of cutting back benefits and slowing the rate of pay increases, to just up and FIRE thousands of workers? Interesting logic. Just saying!

Wow!!!


Reading is fundamental you know?


I didn't say one thing about FIRING anyone...I said cut the politicians pay and bennies, and cut duplicative programs offered by different federal agencies and the length of time and amounts a person is able to be on welfare programs.

Happy investing!

[Buckeyedog]

Oh and this chart is pretty neat:
https://media.nationalpriorities.org/up ... nacted.png

That chart is a bit misleading. Social Security and Medicare should not be considered in the "Total Federal Spending" because SS and Medicare are not paid for by taxes. We pay into SS and Medicare separately in addition to paying taxes. SS and Medicare should be self sufficient and pay for what they were originally set up to do, if the Gov would stop using the funds to subsidize other 'entitlement' programs.

It would be interesting to see three charts, Total Federal SS Spending, Total Federal Medicare Spending, and Total Federal tax dollar Spending.

The programs that are funded 100% by tax dollars are the ones that should be under the knife. I work in DOD Acquisition and see the absurd overhead, additional charges, and profit the Gov pays contractors and corporations. Basically for every $1 dollar of goods or service we get from a contractor the Gov ends up paying $3. And it's all DCAA and GAO approved. Take that $1 cost ya $3 mentality into the Millions/Billions and one can easily see where cuts can be made.

My 2c, Tirade done..........[/quote]

Same for me ron.logan. Not only what we pay the contractors, but we buy so much stuff and funnel so many billions of dollars to these large contractors for stuff "we" don't even want or need. Case in point several years ago with the C-17's. The AF didn't want/need any more of them, but congress mandated we buy 10 more. Sure could fund a lot of Fed salaries on that!!! We buy spares for planes that aren't even delivered yet and put them on shelves because we have to "spend the expiring $$"!!!

[evilanne]

Oh and this chart is pretty neat:
https://media.nationalpriorities.org/up ... nacted.png

That chart is a bit misleading. Social Security and Medicare should not be considered in the "Total Federal Spending" because SS and Medicare are not paid for by taxes. We pay into SS and Medicare separately in addition to paying taxes. SS and Medicare should be self sufficient and pay for what they were originally set up to do, if the Gov would stop using the funds to subsidize other 'entitlement' programs.

It would be interesting to see three charts, Total Federal SS Spending, Total Federal Medicare Spending, and Total Federal tax dollar Spending.

The programs that are funded 100% by tax dollars are the ones that should be under the knife. I work in DOD Acquisition and see the absurd overhead, additional charges, and profit the Gov pays contractors and corporations. Basically for every $1 dollar of goods or service we get from a contractor the Gov ends up paying $3. And it's all DCAA and GAO approved. Take that $1 cost ya $3 mentality into the Millions/Billions and one can easily see where cuts can be made.

My 2c, Tirade done..........

I generally agree. On the chart, Social Security also includes "unemployment & labor" and Medicare also includes "health" so it is hard to tell what these really represent. Social Security could be more self supporting by increasing or removing the maximum taxable earnings (Cap for 2017 is $127,200). What I found interesting is that Interest on the debt is 4th largest expenditure group.

[Aitrus]

How about cutting agencies that aren't authorized by the Constitution?

Every government agency is technically authorized by the Constitution. When Congress passes legislation, the Constitution gives it the authority to enforce the legislation. The enforcement is done by the executive branch. Most if not all agencies are created by a piece or pieces of legislation which means that as long as the legislation remains, the agency is needed to ensure that the legislation is enforced.

Skie, you know that I’m a Libertarian, so you know that I disagree with you here. The mere fact that Congress passes legislation authorizing the creation of a new entity, or if a President creates new entities to carry out various tasks, does not imply that they are Constitutional. The 10th Amendment is clear on this point.

The problem is simple: few previous or current members of Congress from either party have any desire to follow the Constitution in any meaningful way. There was a slow creep of government growth after the Civil War which then suffered a major change in 1913 with the introduction of income taxes. Then it exploded, starting with FDR’s faulty application of the general welfare clause found in the Preamble, which doesn’t really authorize anything.

There are 15 cabinet-level executive branch departments, most of which are either not needed or not authorized. These are the changes I would enact to more align the Federal level of government to be more IAW the Congress’ Constitutional enumerations:

Post Office Department – this is now known as the Postal Service, and is clearly authorized by Article 1, Section 8, Paragraph 7 where Congress is given the power “to establish Post Offices and post Roads”. I would change nothing here. It’s worth noting that it makes more sense to have a Post Office Department than some of the other cabinet-level departments that are clearly unconstitutional.

The Department of Transportation has a barely justified existence, but limited to those activities that affect “post Roads” as per the Post Office Department justification I just covered. It has no jurisdiction over mass transit or aviation.

The VA should be rolled into the DoD, since that is what they relate to. We had veterans for 200 years before the VA, and there is no reason to have a separate agency to deal with an issue that the DoD is capable of handling itself.

The Department of Homeland Security is the same. What’s the point of having a Homeland Security Department if we already have a Defense Department. Any legitimate functions of the DHS could and should be a part of the DoD. FEMA and the TSA have no authority whatsoever and should not exist.

The Department of Commerce has two mentions: Article 1, Section 8, Paragraph 3 and Section 9, Paragraph 6. But the Dept of Commerce wasn’t created until 1903, so what did the government do before that? The government had no need of a Commerce Department until it started regulating commerce in an unconstitutional way starting with the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887. The Dept of Commerce can be done away with.

The Department of the Interior includes a ton of agencies that all do more or less the same thing – regulate something the government has no business regulating. The only time we really needed a Department of the Interior was when the US acquired the Northwest Territory and the Louisiana Purchase. There’s no reason for the US to own more than 25% of all the land in the US (with ownership exceeding 50% in some states). The government has no Constitutional authority to regulate fish, wildlife, or to supply water and power. Everything but the Bureau of Indian Affairs should be eliminated, and the BIA rolled into the State Department.

The DoD is justified in several paragraphs in Article 1, Section 8. What can’t be justified by the Constitution is a Department of Offense, which is what the DoD has become. All nondefense spending (foreign wars, foreign bases, foreign interventions, policing actions, etc) should be eliminated and the department shrunk in size. It should focus on defense of the homeland and not defense of other homelands that are not our own.

The Department of Justice is reasonable since counterfeiting, piracy and treason are mentioned in the Constitution. However, since most federal crimes should be just state crimes, the abuses of the FBI and federal prosecutors are well known, and the DEA and ATF souldn’t exist, the Justice Department should be scaled back quite a bit.

Department of State is the most logical department for the government to have. Article 2, Section 2, Paragraph 2 mentions making treaties with, and sending ambassadors to, other countries. But the department could be much smaller if US foreign policy was not so interventionist.

The Department of the Treasury is justified in several paragraphs in Article 1, Section 8. What cannot be justified is Congress’s creation the Federal Reserve System. Any legitimate functions of the Fed should be handled by the Treasury Department. The IRS shouldn’t exist, because an income tax implies that the government owns the lives and labor of the citizens. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax is Plank #2 of the Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Excise taxes, and tariffs, all handled by the Treasury, would supply all the funding needed for a government of the size that I’m advocating for in this post.

The departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Labor cannot be justified in any way by the Constitution. Where in the Constitution is the federal government authorized to have anything to do with agriculture, education, energy, health, housing and labor?

We are a nation of laws, and the Constitution is the law of the land. If the Constitution is going to be followed, then of the 15 cabinet-level executive branch only 7 can be justified in some way, but we really need only 4 or 5 if the Department of the Post Office is restored to cabinet-level.

Everything I wrote after the first two paragraphs is a paraphrasing of a couple of excellent articles. I agree with every single point in these. The first source is here:

https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/art ... partments/

The second is here:

https://www.ronpaul.com/taxes/